I've got some bad news for all of you, I've been very productive these last two weeks. If you read my last couple blog posts, then you know that I've been trying to spend my free time writing instead of programming. Lately that hadn't been working. I had come up against a plot problem in my story, and didn't know where to go. Meanwhile people were buying subscriptions to my games, so I worked on those instead. While working on the 8k contest, I dug into my Junk File to grab some quick character ideas and backstory when, lo and behold, I came across an idea I had written down a couple years prior that solved all my current writing problems and several others I hadn't even thought of yet.

So I've been writing like crazy - and that's the bad news for BYOND. BYOND has been fun, and I'm sure I'll be back in two months when my writer's block kicks in again, but I'm hoping that the time I spend here will be shorter with every visit.

That's the stuff that's important to me, now let's get on to the stuff that's important to you. Yes, I did say that Regressia is free now. I promised I'd release something new at the end of the 8k. Well, that ain't gonna happen (unless you want to read my rough draft [: ). The least I can do is release something to BYOND, and seeing as how most of you don't have Regressia subs, that game is pretty much new to 96% of you.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a subscription over the past year, and to anyone who donates money to me using the Regressia hub from this point forward. Should I ever release another game on BYOND, I'll continue to offer bonuses to Regressia subs like I do in Casual Quest.

To bad, I really did like what I was working on for the 8k. Want to help me finish it? The programming is done, with the exception of tweaking the AI - as the characters are unfinished, there is no way to test the effectiveness of the AI. How can the programming be finished if the characters are unfinished, you ask? Well, a kick or a punch is exactly the same thing no matter the character, you just have to input how far the characters' legs and arms extend and how potent the attack is. For instance, Alea's kick extends much further than Sean's, but Sean's punch is much more powerful than any attack Alea has.

It's actually pretty darned fun, and works over the internet surprisingly well (granted, all my tests so far have been on servers not experiencing lag). All I need is images (and sounds and music, though those are on the 'want', not 'need', list). Care to help me out? Here's Sean. What you see there are the basics all characters need: basic attacks, guarding, hurt, etc.. Here's Badru's unfinished sprite sheet. He needs a lot of love.

Think you can finish Badru (and maybe give him a better name) or make a character of your own? Send me your sprite sheet and if it's complete and usuable*, I'll finish Jeet Kune Do 2.

*Usuable: All the frames look good and polished. No frames look like they were hacked together in 5min in MS Paint. Character could not fit in perfectly with the sprites in Elation.DBZrelegr8.

Just a thought; if you ever decide to sell or publish any of your writings you could give a digital copy of your first work to us who bought Regressia. I look forward to playing Jeet Kune Do 2 if you ever do get the chance to release it!

I just might do a complete playthrough of Regressia, now that's it's free. How long would you estimate the game plays for?

Also, I should point out that you should be doing whatever you want to do with your time. If you enjoy writing more than programming, then you shouldn't apologize for not doing much programming. Besides, what you have already programmed is amazing fun (Casual Quest!).

Just curious, why the hate against DBZRelegr8? Relegr8 is really great. :)

No hate. I even have a Relegr8 rip up on the hub, if you can find it. I just need to make sure that any character sprites I get for JKD2 meet a certain standard of quality. When I was working on the original JKD I got a lot of character submissions, all (except one) were completely unusable.

Question, can I finish the game in HTML5 canvas / JavaScript? :) It would be a single player game (networking would still be possible, but I'd have to investigate this), mind you. But I was thinking of not only using your characters, but extending on your idea to make mine. Of course, I can't say when it would be completed (but things are going well with me for HTML5 nowadays). All of this porting is more of a future talk though. I really think you drawn some great stuff, and I would like to get it exposed a bit better than it is now. Exposure to HTML5 is quite open in arms right now, and it is very welcomed by the public.

I am also willing to ask if you're interested in me porting your Regressia to HTML5 as well? One thing I do believe Byond is not really suited for atm, is for single player games. They're not bad or anything, but I always find myself running into issues that could easily be better in something like HTML5 where localdata is stored a bit more accessible, while HTML5 would be more potential for exposure as it would not even bother requiring a .exe download. It would be a prompt start up and get go, more seemlessly.

Also, can you use something other than DMI for a sprite sheet? Those artists like myself draw on Linux thanks. :P

Which game are you talking about? If you're talking about JKD2, then I'm afraid you didn't understand what I said. I have the programming done, but not the art, so in order for you do 'finish' it in HTML5, you'd have to redo all the programming and all the art. And even then it would only be single player, when the whole purpose of JKD is to play against other people.

I am also willing to ask if you're interested in me porting your Regressia to HTML5 as well?

Maybe some day, but not now.

Also, can you use something other than DMI for a sprite sheet?

Just download the file and rename it "file.png". DMI files are just PNG files with comments.

Which game are you talking about? If you're talking about JKD2, then I'm afraid you didn't understand what I said. I have the programming done, but not the art, so in order for you do 'finish' it in HTML5, you'd have to redo all the programming and all the art. And even then it would only be single player, when the whole purpose of JKD is to play against other people.

No, I understood what you said about it. I'd be willing to port it to HTML5 myself. This doesn't stop you from making a Byond based version of it while I make the single player in HTML5, creating my own graphic work that you can also possibly use for your Byond game. ;) The point that you were trying to address is someone to extend upon your drawing, which is something I am also trying to address.

As far as single player vs. multiplayer goes, I think you're not realising a simple AI is possible to make the game playable as single player. You can then expand on this to make a multiplayer version in HTML5 (again, have to investigate this). Though multiplayer support would have to be something later I would implement, as I'm not familiar with it in HTML5, but it is possible to create something like what you're trying to accomplish.

I am also willing to ask if you're interested in me porting your Regressia to HTML5 as well?

Maybe some day, but not now.

I think you're misunderstanding what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you to port it. I'm asking for permission to port it, providing that I am accrediting you for the graphic work. ;)

Again, this is just future talk. I'm asking you now so I can make plans for later on down my HTML5 trail.

Also, can you use something other than DMI for a sprite sheet?

Just download the file and rename it "file.png". DMI files are just PNG files with comments.

Do you have any plan to release or thoughts on releasing the source code to Regressia, one of the most polished games on BYOND? What incentives could one provide to make this happen?

To ATP development? Sure. Remember when I let you see my menu system? ALL of the game is like that. It would be useless to every BYONDer out there except for me. This is mostly because the code base could never be used for a multiplayer game.

To ATP development? Sure. Remember when I let you see my menu system? ALL of the game is like that. It would be useless to every BYONDer out there except for me. This is mostly because the code base could never be used for a multiplayer game.

I meant a full release under something like the GPL or BSD license. I think Regressia is a prime candidate for such a release, especially because of lack of multiplayer- people would have a great codebase to learn from and we don't really have to worry about rips flooding the hub.

When "What is the single most effective thing you did to improve your programming skills?" was asked on the programmers stackexchange, the fourth most popular answer was "Read code written by different people." with 227 upvotes. This answer came in behind basics like "Never stop learning", "working with people smarter than yourself", and "learn everything you can."